APP pensioners appeal to president and prime minister

Islamabad (Sunday, July 8, 2012) – Retired employees of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) have appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf for payment of outstanding dues stuck for the last five years.According to a press release, the APP Retired Employees Foundation said here Saturday that the retired staffers had filed several petitions to the Secretary Information and the APP’s Managing Director for the release of their dues, but to no avail.
The press release said the Executive Director had promised to clear dues of the pensioners by June this year, but now the management is even hesitant to meet the representative delegation of the hard-hit retired staffers of the agency.
The management has even refused to provide details of arrears — including a five-year profit of APP Employees Contributory Fund from 1-7-2006 to 30-6-2010 which has already been audited by the concerned chartered accountant firm, it said.
The employees have also not been paid one-year arrears of 15 per cent raise in salary in June 2007, besides 15 per cent and 20 per cent increases in pension. The management paid one-year arrears of 15 per cent to the regular employees in April 2010 but the retired employees were ignored by the management.
The PPP government has announced increase in pension to mitigate the financial difficulties of retired employees and keeping in view the increasing inflation and price hike in the country in 2010 and 2011 budgets.
The pensioners have appealed to the president and the prime minister to help resolve problems being faced by the retired employees, as most of them have no other source of income and are struggling to even meet basic needs of their families.